Net interest: who pays whom across borders

When a government's interest bill is in the news, the figure quoted is the whole bill. Most of it is paid to people at home (savers, pension funds, banks and the country's own central bank), and money also flows the other way: a country's residents earn interest on other governments' bonds. This page nets the two, country by country.

Net interest by country

Green means more interest flows into the country than its government pays abroad; red means a net outflow. Click a country to see what it pays to, and receives from, each partner.

Interest received counts only bonds of the 12 governments covered here, and only where a source reports who holds them. Countries marked receipts not seen have no reported holdings of the others' bonds, so their net shows payments only.

Places that receive but aren't covered

These hold the covered governments' bonds, so interest flows to them, but their own governments' debt isn't in the data. Several are custody and fund centres (Belgium, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Switzerland): the bonds are held there on behalf of investors elsewhere.

Why the headline figure and the net figure differ

Most interest stays at home. Where bonds are held by domestic savers, pension funds and banks, the interest is income for the same economy, and some of it comes back as tax.
The central bank's share comes back. Interest paid on bonds the country's own central bank holds (after quantitative easing) mostly returns to the treasury as central bank profit, or offsets the interest the central bank pays banks on reserves.
Interest flows both ways. Japan's government pays foreigners relatively little, while holders in Japan earn tens of billions a year on US Treasuries, so Japan is a net receiver. The US pays the rest of the world far more than it earns from other governments, because the dollar is the world's reserve asset.
Net isn't the whole story either. These flows run from a government to holders abroad, and back to a country's residents (companies, funds and its central bank), not to its government. A net inflow helps the economy's income, not the budget directly.
Interest is one line of a bigger account. Interest received from and paid abroad is part of a country's "income from abroad", which sits alongside trade in goods and services in its current account. See how they add up on the trade deficits page: Japan, for example, earns its surplus from investment income rather than exports.

Method and sources

The page uses the same figures as the debt interest map: each holding × the issuing government's average interest rate, converted to US dollars. This assumes every holder earns the average rate, and holdings come from different dates (Dec 2024 to Aug 2026). Holdings are by where the custodian sits, which overstates custody centres such as the UK, Belgium and Luxembourg.

An illustration built from published statistics with different dates and definitions, not a live feed or investment advice. Interest on private debt (company bonds, bank loans) and on bonds of governments outside the 12 isn't included. See also what would happen if the interest stopped and how interest fits into trade and the current account.